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In June of 2003, I was fortunate enough to be invited on a diving trip to the
Bay Islands of Honduras. The islands we dove were Roatan, Cayos Cuchinos and
Utilla. Thank you Mike
for providing me this opportunity for another great adventure! I look forward
to many many more.
We spent 6 glorious days and nights diving from our floating hotel. The Bay
Islands Aggressor IV was a perfect dive platform. She is a little slow but she
got us where we needed to go and had enough beam to handle the routine 6 foot
swells that were present the entire trip. I was lucky enough to get in 19 day
dives and 2 night dives. The dives varied greatly ranging from walls to wrecks
and everything in between.
For more information on Aggressor Tours click here.
Our crew was incredible. Thanks again to Captain Kurt Jenson, Edy, Slim, our
fabulous chef Jurgen, Marna and NO ONE can forget the critical role Randell
played in making sure everyone was safe and sound.
To view some of my pictures from this great trip and our dives, select a gallery
from the lists below.
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 Garden Eel |
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This was a nice place to start our adventure. Plenty of sea life, walls and
crevices. I did 2 dives here with a combined bottom time of 78 minutes and
max depth of 86 feet.
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| Dan's Wall |
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As with all of the dives this was great. THe surf was a steady 4 feet but
the current made for some heavy exertion. Some friendly barracude, plenty
of urchins, a nice white spotted filefish and some soapfish made up the
memoriable encounters on this dive. I did 2 day dives here with a combined bottom time of 86 minutes
and max depth of 68 feet. Charley and I also had an aborted night dive that
we managed to eke out 9 minutes with a max depth of 64 feet. Charley,
trust the compass.
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| Turtle Bay Wall |
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Next stop...Utilla. As the name of this location would indicate, it is a
great wall dive and didn't let us down. Gliding along with us for a while
was a beautiful Hawsbill turtle. I also found some friendly green and
spotted moreys as well as some porcupine fish. I was able to do 2 dives
here with a combined bottom time of 77 minutes and max depth of 113 feet.
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| Jack Neal's Island |
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This small island off the coast of Utilla is rumored to be the old hideout
for a Carribean pirate named Jack Neal. If you have ever had the urge to
own your own island, this might be it. It is currently for sale for
$660,000 USD. I was only able to get one dive in here as the swells had
picked up and it really wasn't prudent for diving. I had 28 minutes of
bottom time with a max depth of 109 feet. Nothing real memorable other
than a Queen Triggerfish that loved to pose and a nice Hogfish.
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| Toon Town |
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The next day we found ourselves off Cayos Cuchinos. Our first dive was at a
location named Toon Town. This is affectionitly named after the abundance
of tunicates found here. I was able to see my first juvinile Spotted Drums
(my favorite fish) here as well as some more green and spotted moreys. We
only had good water for one dive so we headed out to Sea Mount. However,
we did return in the afternoon for another dive here. I did a total of
2 dives on Toon Town for a total of 98 minutes with a max depth of 75 feet.
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| The Odyssey |
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Since I lost several pictures to a malfunctioning memory stick reader on the
ship, we are fast forwarding past The Aquilla and Dolphin Cove.
The 300 foot Odyssey is Roatan's newest wreck. It is nice and calm, nestled
off the ledge of some otherwise good wall diving. I was able to get 2 dives in
on the Odyssey for a total of 52 minutes with a max depth of 120 feet.
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| NITROX Alley |
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The greatest thing about diving NITROX Alley was finding a Scorpion Fish. That took
care of 2 of the 3 fish I wanted to see on this trip. I ended up with 2
dives here (1 day, and 1 night) for a total of 90 minutes and a max depth of 106
feet.
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| Mary's Place |
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This was the last dive of the trip. The weather had gotten to an unbearable
state and we actually pulled the mooring about 20 minutes into the dive.
Imagine a group of divers being pulled back to the ship by a skiff in
4 foot seas. Needless to say, there were some unhappy divers. However,
in every cloud there is a silver lining right? RIGHT! In the last minutes
of the dive I was able to complete my list of the 3 fish I wanted to see.
I found a perfect Sea Horse hanging on the a sea fan for dear life. I
had 1 dive here for 24 minutes and a max depth of 80 feet.
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